The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (“UAVs”) has become important in recent years for a wide variety of applications, including military uses. In some applications, a UAV may be required to be capable of maneuvering quickly or in tight spaces. Further, the UAV may be required to have this capability over a wide range of speeds.
Conventional, fixed-wing, small UAVs generally lack the maneuverability and speed range that would be necessary for operating in an urban canyon. Generally, this is due to a reliance upon airflow over control surfaces derived from the forward airspeed of the vehicle. Therefore, vertical-takeoff-and-landing (“VTOL”) aircraft have been used to address this maneuvering challenge at low speeds. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,719,244, a VTOL aircraft uses lateral tilting of the propellers to induce unbalanced torque-induced and gyroscopic moments which act on the aircraft about an axis essentially perpendicular to the tilt axis. Similarly, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0192047 discloses a hovering aerial vehicle that uses two ducted fans attached to a common drive housing. In operation, the vanes below each fan body may be tilted differentially or in unison to generate control forces. In certain aspects, fixed wings may be attached to the ducts for forward flight capability.
Despite the foregoing advancements, a need still exists for an aircraft capable of executing tight-radius turns at high angular rates over a wide range of speeds. Moreover, a need exists for a low-cost and/or durable aircraft capable of executing tight-radius turns at high angular rates over a wide range of speeds. Finally, a need exists for an aircraft that may be organically deployed and that involves only nominal assembly.
Accordingly, the subject disclosure provides durable aircraft that use thrust-vectoring modules to enable the aircraft to execute tight-radius turns at high angular rates over a wide range of speeds. The subject disclosure also describes aircraft that employ frangible aircraft components to mitigate or eliminate damage by transferring landing energy into kinetic energy operating on the frangible components upon impact.